Can you take a 2-week, uninterrupted vacation? If you can’t or don’t think you can, then this episode is for you. Our guest today is Austin Netzley, who talks about his new book, The 2-Week Vacation Test.
TODAY’S WIN-WIN:
Pick the date for your 2-week vacation to start.
LINKS FROM THE EPISODE:
ABOUT OUR GUEST:
Austin Netzley is a highly accomplished entrepreneur, author, and business growth advisor with a passion for helping service-based business owners and entrepreneurs achieve remarkable success. As the Founder and CEO of 2X, Austin has empowered numerous 6- and 7-figure businesses to scale exponentially with the proven 2X Operating System (2XOS).
Austin and his team have assisted private clients in generating over $255 Million in revenue within a span of three years. By helping business owners simplify their strategy, systemize their operations, and drive consistent, predictable growth, 2X delivers world-class results with their hands-on 1-on-1 coaching experience.
ABOUT BIG SKY FRANCHISE TEAM:
This episode is powered by Big Sky Franchise Team. If you are ready to talk about franchising your business you can schedule your free, no-obligation, franchise consultation online at: https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/ or by calling Big Sky Franchise Team at: 855-824-4759.
If you are interested in being a guest on our podcast, please complete this request form or email podcast@bigskyfranchise.com and a team member will be in touch.
TRANSCRIPTION:
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (00:01):
Welcome to the Multiply Your Success podcast, where each week we help growth-minded entrepreneurs and franchise leaders take the next step in their expansion journey. I’m your host, Tom DuFore, CEO of Big Sky Franchise Team, and as we open today, I’m wondering, can you take a two-week uninterrupted vacation? And if you can’t or if you don’t think you can, then this episode is for you. Our guest today is Austin Netzley who talks about his new book, The 2-Week Vacation Test.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (00:32):
Now, Austin is a highly accomplished entrepreneur, author, and business growth advisor with a passion for helping service-based business owners and entrepreneurs achieve remarkable success. As the founder and CEO of 2X, Austin has empowered numerous six and seven figure businesses to scale exponentially with the proven 2X operating system.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (00:52):
Austin and his team have assisted private clients and generating over $255 million in revenue within a span of just three years by helping business owners simplify their strategy, systemize their operations, and drive consistent predictable growth. 2X delivers world-class results with their hands on one-to-one coaching experience. You’re going to love this interview, so let’s go ahead and jump right into it.
Austin Netzley, 2X (01:15):
First of all, thanks for having me, Tom. I’m really excited to be here. Love what you do and hope to give some good value today. So my name’s Austin Netzley, I’m the founder and CEO of 2X. We work with six and seven figure business owners all across the globe to help them streamline, systemize and scale to achieve their big goals. So that’s it.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (01:30):
Amazing. Well, part of that streamlining, systemizing and helping entrepreneurs, successful leaders grow and multiply, you have a book out talking about the two-week vacation test, and I’d love for you just to talk a little bit about your book, give a summary for those who maybe haven’t read it yet, so we can talk about it and then I’d love to talk about some of the details within there.
Austin Netzley, 2X (01:54):
So the newest book is called The 2-Week Vacation Test, as you mentioned. And it’s very simple, how would your business do if you go on a two week, no strings attached vacation? Most businesses would stop pretty much immediately or they’d falter pretty quickly. Right? But what we want to do is build the team and operations in place so that your business can run, grow, and thrive without you. Once it’s able to do that, then you’re in the power position.
Austin Netzley, 2X (02:17):
You can be working on the business and scaling it to the next level. You can potentially exit for a really high multiple or you can do a lot of different things. So getting your business ready to where you can take committed time off so that you can live the lifestyle why you started a business to begin with, as well as improve the health of your company and your team and operations. It’s a test for your business, but it’s also a methodology to create a very successful and streamlined and successful business.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (02:41):
One of the things that you said is for business owners that maybe tune in where they’re thinking, “Well, if I take a two-week vacation,” where there’s that failure or it doesn’t run without them. So talk through some of those common characteristics or things that you see that would not allow someone to step away for two weeks.
Austin Netzley, 2X (03:00):
There’s a lot, and the reason of the book is to break down the steps to get there because I don’t want people to go and tomorrow take off for two weeks to be like, “Hey team, I’m gone. I’ll be back in two weeks.” Now, take the committed steps one by one so that once you get there, you’re confident and you’re ready and you can actually detach from your business.
Austin Netzley, 2X (03:18):
So in the book, I break down seven steps with the seventh being that two-week vacation test, but the first one is just simply taking a night off. Can you turn work off? Can you be present with your family? Can you not be stressing about work? Can you be really, again, present for yourself? Can you sleep well? Those types of things.
Austin Netzley, 2X (03:34):
So we want to mentally detach and then we want to physically detach from the tasks that we’re doing and ultimately get our business ready so that our team and operations are thriving step-by-step. So breaking it down into those small steps will allow you to build the confidence, it allowed your team to build the confidence so that each step that you go to in the next one, you’re confident that you can take that time off and know that the business is fine.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (03:56):
Very, very interesting. Well, that was part of my question was about some of these steps. So can you talk through the five others that you haven’t mentioned there?
Austin Netzley, 2X (04:05):
Absolutely. So we go from taking a night a hundred percent off to then taking a weekend a hundred percent off. The vast majority of entrepreneurs are working on the weekends. They’re at least thinking or they’re checking their phone, they’re checking their emails, they’re stressing about their work. We’ve got to be able to take committed time off so that you can recharge, so that you can create again, the life experiences that you want as well, and that leads to more productivity.
Austin Netzley, 2X (04:24):
So that’s the second one. The third is then doing something that we call done by 10:30. It’s a deep work productivity strategy that in the morning you’re doing at least two hours of deep and focused work. So the first two steps that I mentioned are really about the mental detachment of the addiction that we have to the busyness of business. The next one is can we turn on work? Can we do deep and focused work? A lot of times we’ve got so many moving pieces in our small business that it’s hard for us to actually get super productive work done.
Austin Netzley, 2X (04:51):
So can we put the right structure in place and do that so that you’re moving the needle forward working on the most important initiatives to either drive growth or to drive the health of your company and do that at least a couple times per week. So we call that done by 10:30 where your morning is a wild success before even 10:30 AM. So that’s the third one. Then from there we go to a full day that you don’t have any meetings, any interaction with your team. This is the first time where your team’s starting to run and be able to operate without you solving all their problems or being there to address all their questions. Right?
Austin Netzley, 2X (05:24):
So if you have a full day, imagine if you have one full day to get your most important projects done, that you don’t have anything on your calendar, that you don’t have any meetings, any team interaction, that, you’re going to have a more productive day than most people have an entire month by doing that. So we call that a crush it day, and that’s again the first time that your team starts to operate without you. Then we go into a four-day weekend, that’s a mini vacation. This is where you start to have some fun and recharge.
Austin Netzley, 2X (05:49):
We recommend at least one of those per quarter. And then you go into one week where your business is running and thriving without you, and that’s the first major test of your team is, can your operations in the day-to-day thrive without you? And once you pass that, then you’re ready for that last step, which is the two-week vacation. And once you’re there, again, you’re in the power position to choose. But if you do this, you’re mentally detaching, you’re simplifying things down, you’re improving your team and operations each step so that you’re confident for the next one.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (06:17):
Excellent. And great simple steps. I like how you describe it and how it’s all laid out. One of the things I’m sure someone who’s going to end up tuning in and they might be thinking something to the effect of, “Well, this sounds great, but…” And they throw some but in, right? “Well, I have this” or “I have that.” And I’m sure you encounter this in your line of work and part of the reason you wrote the book. So when you hear the “However…” Or the “But…” followed by something, how do you respond to that?
Austin Netzley, 2X (06:46):
Well, the first thing that we’ve learned now working with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of businesses all across the globe is that business is business is business. One of the first things that we need to break is that thinking that our business is special, right? Everybody thinks that their business is special, that their situation is special. And I’m like, “All right, do you need marketing and sales? Do you have people on your team?
Austin Netzley, 2X (07:05):
Do you have customers to serve? Do you have moving pieces? Do you have finance? Do you have…” Everybody has all these basic pieces that at the end of the day we have to understand that business is business is business, and the principles that matter for one business are the same that are going to matter for the next. Now, yes, some of the tactics and tweaks and nuances are a little bit different, but we’ve got to understand that business is business.
Austin Netzley, 2X (07:25):
Now, one of the first things is the complexity that most small businesses have, right? Is like when we come into a small business, we see that they have a lot of moving pieces, a lot of which are not really either A, impacting the business and bottom line, or B, they’re not really aligned to help you achieve your goals and vision. So if we can come in and help simplify things down to free up 20% or even 40%, that creates a ton of capacity first and foremost.
Austin Netzley, 2X (07:51):
And that’s one of the biggest business owners’ jobs is to first and foremost simplify and get really clear and strategic so that you’re set up for success, so that the business is set up for success and so that your team is set up for success. So if we can understand that your business isn’t special, and if we can really master simplification, that’s going to put you in a good spot to then be ready to be able to have more time to work on the business and work on the right things, be able to let things go and be able to think that we’re not these special snowflakes situations that we tell ourselves that we are.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (08:22):
How long do you see it takes a business leader, an entrepreneur, to go through these seven steps? Is this something that happens overnight? Does this take 10 years? Can you give us an overview of what that looks like?
Austin Netzley, 2X (08:34):
So step zero that I didn’t mention is to pick a date, pick a date for your two-week vacation test and do that right now. I want you to be thinking, and I want you to go tell your spouse, I want you to tell your family, I want you to tell your team, “Hey, this day I’m going to be gone for two weeks.” Now we’ve got a deadline that we’ve got to get everything ready to go for.
Austin Netzley, 2X (08:52):
Ideally have that in the next six months. All right? You’re not going to need more than six months to get ready for a two-week vacation. When I first did this, I had about six weeks. I was so stuck in the weeds, I was pulled in a hundred different directions and I was like, “I’m fed up. I’m tired, I’m exhausted. I’m going in six weeks and traveling with my girlfriend at the time all summer.”
Austin Netzley, 2X (09:09):
And I had six weeks to get ready. So set that date, put that on the calendar, share that so you have some public accountability, and that will help drive things. From there, you can work through those first couple steps, ideally the first four if you really want to move fast in the next week.
Austin Netzley, 2X (09:24):
So those first four are taking a night off, taking a weekend a hundred percent off, taking or doing the done by 10:30 strategy, which is at least two hours of deep work in the morning before you get into anything reactive, and then doing a full crush it day. If you can do those in the next week, you are going to revolutionize your stress level, your time, and ultimately start to really treat your business as a true business owner instead of a hustling entrepreneur.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (09:49):
What are some of the things that you’ve seen happen? I’m sure for many of your clients you’ve worked with, the process goes relatively smooth, right? I’m thinking about what if the leader takes the four-day weekend and they come back to find and sort out that, “Oh boy, we really have some personnel issues that I didn’t think we had,” and how do you help walk someone through that?
Austin Netzley, 2X (10:12):
Yeah, so great question. So each one of the steps you are going to learn, you’re going to learn things about yourself, you’re going to learn things about your team and business, right? And you’re going to learn some gaps and opportunities that you have. So as you go through that, so for instance, the four-day vacation, you come back and you’re like, “Wow, these are some glaring issues and holes and gaps that we have.”
Austin Netzley, 2X (10:30):
That’s a good thing because those issues were always there. They’re just now magnified and now you can address them more head on. Right? So it’s not necessarily a bad thing. You’re not going to have it be perfect every single step. Just know for instance, the first time that you do a full crush it day, you are going to be wanting to check in. It is going to be so hard for you to not check in with your team at 11:00 AM let alone later in the day.
Austin Netzley, 2X (10:53):
So maybe the first time, maybe you check in for two 30 minute sessions. And that’s okay as you build up towards that, but we don’t pass it until you fully pass it and things are good, right? So you may stay at one step for a couple of times, but every single time that you’re taking committed time off again, you’re going to have more clarity, you’re going to have some things that you want to address. And the biggest thing that you can do is not have it go back to how things were before.
Austin Netzley, 2X (11:17):
You want to have two or three important things that you address each time where you’re setting better structures, where you’re addressing key systems or you’re addressing key personnel issues, or again, making the changes that you need to make so that with each one, you’re creating a healthier business and healthier lifestyle as well.
Austin Netzley, 2X (11:32):
So learning from each one, not expecting it to be perfect, working through each phase until you are really confident that you can pass that, it’s really important to do and take it step by step. So I just had one of my friends who has a eight figure business, very successful entrepreneur. He skipped some of the steps and went straight to a two-week vacation. He came back and saw that they had some major gaps that he wasn’t really aware of.
Austin Netzley, 2X (11:54):
And at first he was kind of frustrated about it, and I’m like, “That’s a great thing because those issues were always there. Now you have the clarity and time freedom to be able to focus on them, address them head on.” And it’s not going to be perfect. The next time he goes on a two-week vacation, it’s going to be so much better and easier. The next time he does it after that, it’s going to be smooth sailing and he’s going to be in an elite spot. So take that perspective and I think you’ll be set up for success.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (12:16):
Excellent. Well, one of the things that I was thinking about as I was listening to you talk and thinking about someone implementing this, and it’s interesting that, I find it interesting at least that this is something that you can do right now. We don’t have to wait, we don’t have to delay, and we can start implementing and executing on this, is kind of a takeaway.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (12:35):
What would maybe be the one or two things? Would it be one thing or two things for them to do? You talked about make that decision, pick a date. I don’t know if that would be it, but just what would be one thing for someone to take away from our conversation that you’d say, “This is the one thing for them to know to start working on this.”
Austin Netzley, 2X (12:51):
One of the biggest things that we haven’t touched on necessarily yet is the mindset shift, is instantly start to think of yourself as a business owner working on the business and even an investor working above the business, not being stuck in the business. So oftentimes we get lost in the day-to-day we think so many things need to be done by us. We get hold in a hundred different directions and we stay there.
Austin Netzley, 2X (13:12):
So use this as a real turning point to be able to say, “Hey, as of right now here today listening to this podcast with Austin and Tom, I’m going to start to separate myself from the day-to-day of the business. I’m going to start to work on the business. I’m going to fully take back control of my time.” And that mindset switch will lead into everything. Because all the tactics and strategies that I lay out in the book, all the templates and things that you work through, all that’s easy if you have the mindset to back it up.
Austin Netzley, 2X (13:37):
So I’d say that is one of the biggest thing. And then start with some of these small steps right away so that you don’t lose the momentum, that you don’t lose the vision that you have now of having this wildly successful business that can run and thrive without you, where you’ve got time freedom and your team and operations are thriving. That’s possible, and it’s actually possible and much closer than you think if you implement those steps. So start with the mindset and you’re set.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (13:59):
Austin, for someone tuning in, how can they get a copy of your book and how can they learn more a little bit about what you’re doing? And I believe, if I recall correctly, you’ve got a great little assessment as well available. So I’d love for you to share that too.
Austin Netzley, 2X (14:11):
Yeah. We work hands on, one on one with six and seven figure business owners to guide them on exactly what to do, to give them the systems and strategies, and we’ve got a lot of those laid out in my books. So we’ve got one book called From 6 to 7 Figures, as well as the book that we’re talking about here today, The 2-Week Vacation Test. So highly recommend those. And they’re very tangible. They’ve got a lot of visuals and things that you can work through.
Austin Netzley, 2X (14:30):
There’s action steps there because it’s not about information, it’s about actually implementing it to your business. So I’m really excited to share those two. Those are on Amazon as well as on my website. And we’ve got a great assessment that evaluates your whole business and where to focus because there’s a lot of moving pieces and it’s hard to understand where to focus to make the biggest traction. So you can find that on our website as well at 2x.co. It’s a very simple domain at 2x.co. And our goal is to double your business, double your freedom, and that’s reason for the branding.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (14:58):
We’ll make sure we include that in the show notes for you. Well, Austin, this is a great time in the show where we make a transition. We ask every guest the same four questions before they go. And the first question we ask is, have you had a miss or two on your journey and something you learned from it?
Austin Netzley, 2X (15:11):
I’ve had more than a missed or two, but one that I would say that stands out is we acquired a business a few years ago and we acquired it pretty quickly, and they did not have initial traction. They did not have product market fit. They did not have a clear audience that they served in a validated offer and the way that we served them or the way that they serve them.
Austin Netzley, 2X (15:29):
And as a result, we tried to hire that and indoctrinate it into and blend it with our business, and it was way more work and way more stress than it needed to be. So the acquisition and not doing proper due diligence and not really focusing on a very specific avatar of who they serve, that led to a lot of heartaches. So that was a major miss that cost me some good money. But most importantly, time.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (15:52):
Thank you for sharing and let’s talk about a make or two.
Austin Netzley, 2X (15:56):
One of the wins that stands out is achieving Inc. 5000 back-to-back years. And the reason why I’m excited about that is because it’s one thing to have a multi seven or eight figure business, it’s another thing to do that where you’re growing fast in such a way, and there’s another thing to do that, and growing in such a way where it’s consistent over time and you’re able to do that while traveling a lot. So I have complete time freedom and I’m out of the day-to-day, but we’ve got such a great team and product that things can run and grow and thrive without me that we’re able to do that. So that’s a big win that I’m proud of for the team and proud of for the infrastructure and business that we’ve built.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (16:30):
Fantastic. Well, let’s talk about a multiplier. The name of our show’s Multiply Your Success and love for you to talk through a multiplier you’ve used personally or professionally as you’ve grown.
Austin Netzley, 2X (16:41):
I love what you talk about because you talk about so much related to systems. You need systems to have a great franchise. Well, I would say one of the other multipliers outside of that that we talk about that is really important is having a great assistant. If you have a great assistant, they will take so much off your plate.
Austin Netzley, 2X (16:55):
There’s so many moving pieces and admin and decision fatigue that most business owners have that if you can really nail that role, that’s going to free up a lot of capacity, keep you free from some of the weeds, and that’s a true multiplier role with the leverage that you can get from exchanging your time from an admin standpoint to high impact stuff is absolutely huge. And that’s again, the real definition of a multiplier.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (17:16):
And Austin, the final question we ask every guest is, what does success mean to you?
Austin Netzley, 2X (17:21):
Well, I’ll answer it from a business standpoint, is we teach business success. A wildly successful business is one that’s growing consistently and predictably, is one that’s super profitable in generating cashflow and wealth for yourself and for your family, and one that is where you’re free from the weeds, you’ve got time freedom. So is it scaling? Is it super profitable in generating wealth? Do you have time freedom?
Austin Netzley, 2X (17:39):
If you have those three things, you are a wildly successful entrepreneur. It’s hard, very hard to get all three. It’s very easy to get one of the three or even two of the three, but you’ve got to put in the proper systems and infrastructure to make sure that you can get all three where you’re running, growing and thriving without you. And that puts you in a special spot, which is again, brings it full circle to what we’re talking about with the two-week vacation test, which is to help you get all three.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (18:03):
Before we go, is there anything you were maybe hoping to share or get across that you haven’t had a chance to yet?
Austin Netzley, 2X (18:08):
I would say one thing that stands out is there’s a lot of moving pieces in business. So it is so important to work on the right things in the right order because you’re probably working hard enough, you’re probably way more than talented and smart enough, right? But you see the ones that get the most traction, that have the best strategy and model and that work on the right things in the right order.
Austin Netzley, 2X (18:30):
Because we’ve got limited time, energy, and resources. So if you can understand what that order is and attack things in the right way, you’re going to get more traction more easily, free up time and make it easier as you scale and scale consistently. So that’s one of the biggest things that we talk about and preach, the order of things. And that’s part of what the assessment will help you do, is identify what that order is.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (18:50):
Austin, thank you so much for a fantastic interview and let’s go ahead and jump into today’s three key takeaways. So takeaway number one is when he described the seven steps to get to that two-week vacation. So step one is take a night off, step two, take a weekend off, the done by 10:30 to get the two hours of deep and focused work in each day. Then it’s one full day with no meetings and no team interaction. He calls it a crush it day.
Then to have a four-day weekend of no interruptions and to have one of those per quarter, then a one-week vacation followed by step seven, which is the two-week vacation. Takeaway number two is that as you go through each step of that process, you’re going to learn something about your team and your business, something new. Takeaway number three is the multiplier he shared, which is have a great assistant.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (19:45):
If you don’t have a great assistant, it sounds like that’s going to be an initial first step to helping you get down this pathway to where you want to go to this two-week vacation. And now it’s time for today’s win-win. So today’s win-win is very simple, and I loved how Austin said this is, it’s just pick a day. So when you go through a seven steps to get to that two-week vacation, he said, pick a day for when that two-week vacation is going to be and set that deadline. And it needs to be within the next six months.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (20:23):
And that deadline is going to drive everything going forward and it’s going to be a win for you and your staff and your team, and your business and your family and everyone involved with you and your life as a leader of your organization. And so that’s the episode today, folks. Please make sure you subscribe to the podcast and give us a review. And remember, if you or anyone you know might be ready to franchise their business or take their franchise company to the next level, please connect with us at bigskyfranchiseteam.com. Thanks for tuning in and we look forward to having you back next week.